Another Option
by TheDevilYouDon't
Summary: "Don't look at me like that, Draco. I heard what you said to me last year when I passed you in the train. I'm not deaf.""What did I say then?" he asked her."The only three words you've ever said to me. 'I love you." Ginny/Draco. Set in Draco's 6th year.


**Ginny/Draco. Enjoy.**

_Another Option_

They had never liked each other. No, it wasn't like. It was deeper than understanding. Deeper than then the silly questions you ask yourself when you're not sure where you stand with your friends. It was respect. A deep respect that left them feeling like ghosts on a cold night when they thought of it too much. He didn't insult her and she didn't insult him. They didn't talk to one another but they shared glances.

Ginny had never understood Draco. In her 5th year, she knew that he had crossed over to Voldemort's side, though. She could tell from the worry that was always on his face and the tears that he had forgotten to wipe away. She didn't know why he had made the choices he had, but she believed that he had made them for a reason. Perhaps, with coming from a family like his, he had not had many options.

Draco had never understood Ginny. He didn't understand why his heart rate increased when he saw her, or why she chose to be the person she was. He didn't get why she was so loyal to those who hurt her and he didn't understand why she was nice to him. Well, not _nice_ but...respectful. She'd never said a bad word to him and because of this, he hadn't said a bad word to her. She was special, Ginny was. That much Draco _could_ understand.

He was pondering all of this the night of Slughorn's Christmas party, as he sat alone in a dark corridor just around the bend from Professor Slughorn's office. He sat with his knees drawn to his chest and his arms crossed in an attempt to fight off the bitter cold that Hogwarts harbored each winter. His head was tossed back against the stone wall and he could feel the goosebumbs rising up his arms and legs whenever he moved it.

Draco had heard her footsteps, seen her vivid orange hair turn the corner to the girl's restroom. He had heard her sniff and seen that her arms were crossed as his were. Draco had seen all of this, yet he said nothing. In the six years that he had been at Hogwarts, he'd only ever said three words to the girl he cared for most. He didn't even know if she would answer him, if he _did _choose to say something. Being sister to someone who loathed him, inside and out, he could only guess that she wouldn't.

"Draco?" He hadn't heard her come back. He hadn't heard her light footsteps turning towards him again.

Draco sat up and looked at her. Her eyes were wide and her pale arms were limp at her sides. She looked at him with pity, he noticed. Draco turned his head so that she would not think he was staring and looked down at his feet.

"Oh, hi. I didn't hear you coming?" _10 words,_ he thought bitterly.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, knowing the answer.

"What do you care?" Since when did a Weasley care about a Malfoy?

"You don't _have_ to be rude, you know," Ginny's tone was harsher as she cocked her him and placed her hand on it firmly. "_I_ did care, for your information, but now I can't think why."

_Well, well, well._ "Sorry," Draco mumbled. "I guess...I'm just not used to people asking how I am, that's all."

"Fine," Ginny said, sitting down on the windowsill next to him. "Listen, Draco," Ginny's voice was suddenly serious. "I don't know what you're going through right now, and frankly, I don't want to. But, I can guess that in your family, you must have just run out of options." Draco bent over his knees and clasped his hands together. "I'm sorry for you, though. And, I want you to know that you always have another option, if you choose to take it."

"What's that?" he asked sinisterly, almost laughing at the idea of an option he had not thought of before he had made his choice.

"Me." Draco looked up at her, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Don't look at me like that, Draco. I heard what you said to me last year when I passed you in the train. I'm not deaf."

"What did I say then?" he asked her.

"The only three words you've _ever _said to me," Ginny looked at him, and he could see her eyes sparkling with tears in the moonlight that shone through the window behind them. "'I love you.'"

Draco felt the air leaving his lungs, felt the tears stinging his eyes as they fell down his cheeks. He felt the cold draft that whipped down the hallway, heard the loud music coming from Slughorn's office, merrily accompanied by the sound of laughter. He felt the pain in his chest as Ginny leaned towards him, heard his heart quicken as butterflies erupted in his stomach and goosebumps rose on his arms and legs and spread across his chest. He felt the want in his heart as he leaned towards her. And, finally, he felt the warmth of her lips as they met his own.

They moved together as they sat on that cold, stone window sill in the dark corrider just round the bend from Professor Slughorn's office. They sat with their arms around each other and their lips together. They moved to the beat of the cheerful Christmas music their ears could not escape.

Draco understood then that he always had another option.

**I'm finished. Yay. XD Tell me what you think!**


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